crucis Lib. 3 cap. 7. p. 211. It is not like the Union of Stones in a Building or of two pieces of Timber fastned together which touch one anotâ—er only in their Superficies and outside without any intimacy with one another By such a kind of Union God would not be man The Word could â—ot so be made Flesh Nor is it a Union of Parts to the whole as the Members and the Body the Members are Parts the Body is the whole for the whole results from the Parts and depends upon the Parts But Christ being God is independent upon any thing The parts are in order of Nature before the whole but nothing can be in order of Nature before God Nor is it as the Union of two Liquors as when Wine and Water are mixed together for they are so Incorporated as not to be distinguish'd from one another no man can tell which Particle is Wine and which is Water But the Properties of the Divine Nature are distinguishable from the Properties of the Humane Nor is it as the Union of the Soul and Body so as that the Deity is the form of the Humanity as the Soul is the form of the Body For as the Soul is but a part of the Man so the Divinity would be then but a part of the Humanity as a Form or the Soul is in a state of Imperfection without that which it is to inform so the Divinity of Christ would have been Imperfect till it had assumed the Humanity And so the perfection of an Eternal Deity would have depended on a Creature of Time This Union of two Natures in Christ is incomprehensible And it is a mystery we cannot arrive to the top of How the Divine Nature which is the same with that of the Father and the Holy Ghost should be united to the Human Nature without its being said that the Father and the Holy Ghost were united to the Flesh but the Scripture doth not encourage any such Notion It speaks only of the Word the Person of the Word being made Flesh And in his being made Flesh distinguisheth him from the Father as the only begotten of the Father Joh. 1.14 The Person of the Son was the term of this Union 1. This Vnion doth not confound the Properties of the Deity and those of the Humanity They remain distinct and entire in each other The Deity is not changed into Flesh nor the Flesh transform'd into God They are distinct and yet united They are conjoined and yet unmixt The Dues of either Nature are preserved 'T is impossible that the Majesty of the Divinity can receive an alteration 'T is as impossible that the meaness of the Humanity can receive the Impressions of the Deity so as to be changed into it and a creature be metamorphos'd into the Creator and Temporary Flesh become Eternal and Finite mount up into Infinity As the Soul and Body are united and make one Person yet the Soul is not changed into the perfections of the Body nor the Body into the perfections of the Soul There is a change made in the Humanity by being advanced to a more Excellent Union but not in the Diety as a change is made in the Air when it is enlightned by the Sun not in the Sun which communicates that brightness to the Air. Athanasius makes the burning Bush to be a type of Christs Incarnation Exod. 3.2 The Fire signifying the Divine Nature and the Bush the human The Bush is a branch springing up from the Earth and the Fire descends from Heaven as the Bush was united to the Fire yet was not hurt by the slame nor converted into Fire there remained a difference between the Bush and the Fire yet the properties of the Fire shined in the Bush so that the whole Bush seemed to be on Fire So in the Incarnation of Christ the Human Nature is not swallowed up by the Divine nor changed into it nor confounded with it But so united that the properties of both remain firme Two are so become one that they remain two still One person in Two Natures containing the glorious perfections of the Divine and the weaknesses of the Humane The fulness of the Deity dwels bodily in Christ Col. 2.9 2. The Divine Nature is vnited to every part of the Humanity The whole Divinity to the whole Humanity so that no part but may be said to be the Member of God as well as the Blood is said to be the Blood of God Acts 20.28 By the same reason it may be said the Hand of God the Eye of God the Arm of God As God is infinitely present every where so as to be excluded from no place so is the Deity hypostatically every where in the Humanity not excluded from any part of it As the light of the Sun in every part of the Air as a sparkling splendor in every part of the Diamond Therefore it is concluded by all that acknowledge the Deity of Christ that when his Soul was separated from the Body the Deity remained united both to Soul and Body as light doth in every part of a broken Christal 3. Therefore perpetually united Coloss 2.9 The fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily It Dwels in him not lodges in him as a Traveller in an Inn It resides in him as a fixed habitation As God describes the perpetuity of his presence in the Ark by his habitation or dwelling in it Exod. 29.44 so doth the Apostle the inseparable duration of the Deity in the Humanity and the indissoluble Union of the Humanity with the Deity It was united on Earth it remains united in Heaven It was not an Image or an Apparition as the Tongues wherein the Spirit came upon the Apostles were a Temporary Representation not a thing united perpetually to the person of the Holy Ghost 4. It was a personal Vnion It was not an union of persons though it was a personal union So Davenant expounds Col. 2.9 Christ did not take the Person of Man but the Nature of Man into subsistence with himself The Body and Soul of Christ were not united in themselves had no subsistence in themselves till they were united to the Person of the Son of God If the Person of a Man were united to him the Human Nature would have been the Nature of the Person so united to him and not the Nature of the Son of God Heb. 2.14 16. Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham He took flesh and blood to be his own Nature perpetually to subsist in the Person of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must be by a Personal Union or no way The Deity united to the Humanity and both Natures to be one Person This
his nature in our Spirits rather than our bodies * Petav. Theol. Dog Tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 1. pa. 104. It was a fancy of Eugubinus that when God set upon the actual Creation of man he took a bodily form for an Exemplar of that which he would express in his work and therefore that the words of Moses * Gen. 1.26 are to be understood of the body of man because there was in Man such a shape which God had then assumed To let alone Gods forming himself a body for that work as a groundless fancy Man can in no wise be said to be the image of God in regard of the substance of his body but beasts may as well be said to be made in the Image of God whose bodies have the same Members as the body of Man for the most part and excell Men in the acuteness of the senses and swiftness of their motion agility of body greatness of strength and in some kind of ingenuities also wherein Man hath been a Scholar to the brutes and beholden to their skill The Soul comes nearest the nature of God as being a Spiritual substance yet considered singly in regard of its Spiritual substance cannot well be said to be the image of God A beast because of its Corporeity may as well be called the image of a Man for there is a greater similitude between man and a brute in the rank of bodies than there can be between God and the highest Angels in the rank of Spirits If it doth not consist in the substance of the Soul much less can it in any similitude of the body This Image consisted partly in the state of man as he had dominion over the Creatures partly in the nature of man as he was an intelligent being and thereby was capable of having a grant of that Dominion but principally in the conformity of the Soul with God in the frame of his Spirit and the holiness of his actions Not at all in the figure and form of his body Physically tho morally there might be as there was a rectitude in the body as an instrument to conform to the holy motions of the soul as the holiness of the soul sparkled in the actions and members of the body If man were like God because he hath a body whatsoever hath a body hath some resemblance to God and may be said to be in part his image But the truth is the essence of all Creatures cannot be an image of the immense essence of God 2. If God be a pure Spirit T is unreasonable to frame any Image or picture of God * Jamblyc protrept cap. 21. Symb. 24. Some Heathens have been wiser in this than some Christians Pythagoras forbad his Scholars to engrave any shape of him upon a Ring because he was not to be comprehended by sense but conceived only in our minds our hands are as unable to fashion him as our eyes to see him * Austin de Civitat Dei lib. 4. cap. 31. out of Varro The ancient Romans worshipped their Gods 170. years before any material representations of them * Tacitus and the Ancient Idolatrous Germans thought it a wicked thing to represent God in a human shape Yet some and those no Romanists labour to defend the making Images of God in the resemblance of man because he is so represented in Scripture he may be * Gerhard loc Comun vol. 4. Exegesis de naturâ Dei cap. 8. § 1. saith one conceived so in our minds and figured so to our sense If this were a good reason why may he not be pictured as a Lyon Horn Eagle Rock since he is under such Metaphors shadowed to us The same ground there is for the one as for the other What tho man be a nobler Creature God hath no more the body of a man than that of an Eagle and some perfections in other Creatures represent some excellencies in his nature and actions which cannot be figur'd by a human shape as strength by the Lyon swiftness and readiness by the wings of the Bird. But God hath absolutely prohibited the making any Image whatsoever of him and that with terrible threatnings Exod. 20.5 I the Lord am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon their Children and Deut. 5.8 9. After God had given the Israelites the Commandment wherein he forbad them to have any other Gods before him he forbids all figuring of him by the hand of man * Amiraut Morale Christiene Tom. 1. p. 294. not only Images but any likness of him either by things in Heaven in the earth or in the water How often doth he discover his indignation by the Prophets against them that offer to mould him in a Creature form This law was not to serve a particular dispensation or to endure a particular time but it was a declaration of his Will invariable in all places and all times being founded upon the immutable nature of his being and therefore agreeable to the Law of nature otherwise not chargeable upon the Heathens And therefore when God had declared his nature and his works in a stately and Majestick eloquence he demands of them To whom they would liken him or what likeness they would compare unto him Isa 40.18 Where they could find any thing that would be a lively image and resemblance of his infinite excellency Founding it upon the infiniteness of his nature which necessarily implies the Spirituality of it God is infinitely above any Statue and those that think to draw God by a stroak of a pensil or form him by the engravings of Art are more stupid than the Statues themselves To shew the unreasonableness of it Consider 1. T is impossible to fashion any image of God If our more capacious Souls cannot grasp his nature our weaker sense cannot frame his image T is more possible of the two to comprehend him in our minds than to frame him in an image to our sense He inhabits inaccessible light As it is impossible for the eye of man to see him t is impossible for the art of man to paint him upon walls and carve him out of wood None knows him but himself none can describe him but himself * Cocceius sum Theol. cap. 9. pa. 47. § 35. Can we draw a figure of our own Souls and express that part of our selves wherein we are most like to God Can we extend this to any bodily figure and divide it into parts How can we deal so with the Original Copy whence the first draught of our Souls was taken and which is infinitely more Spiritual than Men or Angels No Corporeal thing can represent a Spiritual substance there is no proportion in nature between them God is a simple infinite immense eternal invisible incorruptible being A Statue is a compounded finite limited temporal visible and corruptible body God is a living Spirit but a Statue nor sees nor hears nor perceives any thing But suppose God
or Wisdom to have let Man perpetually wallow in that Sink wherein he had plung'd himself since he was Criminal by his own will and therefore Miserable by his own fault Nothing could necessitate this Reparation If Divine Goodness could not be obliged by the Angelical Dignity to repair that Nature he is further from any Obligation by the meaness of Man to repair Humane Nature There was less necessity to restore Man than to restore the fallen Angels What could Man do to oblige God to a Reparation of him since he could not render him a Recompence for his Goodness manifested in his Creation He must be much more impotent to render him a Debtor for the Redemption of him from Misery Could it be a salary for any thing we had done Alass we are so far from Meriting it that by our daily Demerits we seem ambitious to put a stop to any further Effusions of it We could not have complain'd of him if he had left us in the Misery we had courted since he was bound by no Law to bestow upon us the Recovery we wanted When the Apostle speaks of the Gospel of Redemption he giveth it the Title of the Gospel of the Blessed God †2 Tim. 1.11 It was the Gospel of a God abounding in his own Blessedness which receiv'd no addition by Mans Redemption If he had been blessed by it it had been a goodness to himself as well as to the Creature It was not an Indigent Goodness needing the receiving any thing from us but it was a pure Goodness streaming out of it self without bringing any thing into it self for the Perfection of it There was no Goodness in us to be the Motive of his Love but his Goodness was the Fountain of our Benefit 3. It was a distinct Goodness of the whole Trinity In the Creation of Man we find a general Consultation * Gen. 1.26 without those distinct Labours and Offices of each Person and without those rais'd Expressions and Marks of Joy and Triumph as at Mans Restoration In this there are distinct Functions The Grace of the Father the Merit of the Son and the Efficacy of the Spirit The Father makes the Promise of Redemption the Son Seals it with his Blood and the Spirit applies it The Father Adopts us to be his Children the Son Redeems us to be his Members and the Spirit Renews us to be his Temples In this the Father testifies himself well pleased in a Voice The Son proclaims his own delight to do the will of God and the Spirit hastens with the Wing of a Dove to fit him for his work And afterwards in his apparition in the likeness of Fiery Tongues manifests his zeal for the propagation of the Redeeming Gospel 4. The Effects of it proclaim his great Goodness 'T is by this we are deliver'd from the Corruption of our Nature the Ruine of our Happiness the deformity of our Sins and the punishment of our Transgressions He frees us from the Ignorance wherewith we were darkned and from the Slavery wherein we were fetter'd When he came to make Adams Process after his Crime instead of pronouncing the Sentence of Death he had merited he utters a Promise that Man could not have expected His Kindness swells above his provoked Justice and while he chaseth him out of Paradise he gives him hopes of regaining the same or a better Habitation and is in the whole more ready to prevent him with the Blessings of his Goodness than charge him with the horrour of his Crimes †Gen. 3.17 'T is a Goodness that pardons us more Transgressions than there are Moments in our Lives and overlooks as many Follies as there are Thoughts in our Heart He doth not only relieve our wants but restores us to our Dignity 'T is a greater Testimony of Goodness to instate a Person in the highest Honour than barely to supply his present Necessity 'T is an admirable Pity whereby he was inclin'd to Redeem us and an incomparable Affection whereby he was resolv'd to exalt us What can be desir'd more of him than his Goodness hath granted He hath sought us out when we were lost and Ransom'd us when we were Captives He hath Pardon'd us when we were Condemn'd and rais'd us when we were Dead In Creation he rear'd us from nothing in Redemption he delivers our Understanding from ignorance and vanity and our Wills from impotence and obstinacy and our whole Man from a Death worse than that nothing he drew us from by Creation 5. Hence we may consider the height of this Goodness in Redemption to exceed that in Creation He gave Man a Being in Creation but did not draw him from unexpressible Misery by that act His Liberality in the Gospel doth infinitely surpass what we admire in the Works of Nature His Goodness in the latter is more astonishing to our belief than his Goodness in Creation is visible to our Eye There is more of his Bounty exprest in that one Verse * Joh. 3.16 So God loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son than there is in the whole Volume of the World 'T is an incomprehensible so a so that all the Angels in Heaven cannot Analyze and few Comment upon or understand the dimensions of this so In Creation he form'd an Innocent Creature of the Dust of the Ground in Redemption he restores a Rebellious Creature by the Blood of his Son It is greater than that Goodness manifested in Creation 1. In regard of the difficulty of effecting it In Creation meer nothing was vanquisht to bring us into Being In Redemption sullen Enmity was conquer'd for the enjoyment of our Restoration In Creation he subdued a Nullity to make us Creatures In Redemption his Goodness overcomes his Omnipotent Justice to restore us to Felicity A word from the Mouth of Goodness inspir'd the Dust of Mens Bodies with a living Soul but the Blood of his Son must be shed and the Laws of Natural Affection seem to be overturn'd to lay the Foundation of our renew'd Happiness In the first Heaven did but speak and the Earth was form'd In the second Heaven it self must sink to Earth and be clothed with dusty Earth to reduce Mans Dust to its Original State 2. This Goodness is greater than that manifested in Creation in regard of its Cost This was a more expensive Goodness than what was laid out in Creation The redemption of one Soul is pretious †Psal 49.8 much more costly than the whole Fabrick of the World or as many Worlds as the understandings of Angels in their utmost extent can conceive to be Created For the effecting of this God parts with his dearest Treasure and his Son Eclipses his choicest Glory For this God must be made Man Eternity must suffer Death the Lord of Angels must weep in a Cradle and the Creator of the World must hang like a Slave he must be in a Manger in Bethlehem and die upon a Cross on
use them no better than Men do devouring Fish and untam'd Beasts with a Hook in the Nose and a Bridle in the Mouth Those States-men in Isa 29.15 thought their Contrivances too deep for God to fathom and too close for God to frustrate They seek deep to hide their Counsels from the Lord surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the Potters Clay of no more force and understanding than a Potters Vessel which understands not its own form wrought by the Artificer nor the use it is put to by the Buyer and Possessor or shall be esteemed as a Potters Vessel that can be as easily flung back into the Mass from whence it was taken as preserved in the Figure it is now endued with No secret Designer is shrowded from Gods sight or can be shelter'd from Gods Arm He understands the Venom of their Hearts better than we can feel it and discovers their inward fury more plainly than we can see the Sting or Teeth of a Viper when they are opened for mischief and to what purpose doth God know and see them but in order to deliver his People from them in his own due time I know their sorrow and am come down to deliver them * Ex. 3.7 8. The Walls of Jerusalem are continually before him he knows therefore all that would undermine and demolish them None can hurt Zion by any ignorance or inadvertency in God 'T is observable that our Saviour assuming to himself a different Title in every Epistle to the Seven Churches doth particularly ascribe to himself this of Knowledge and Wrath in that to Thyatira an Emblem or Description of the Romish State * Rev. 2 1â— And unto the Angel of the Church of Thyatira write These things saith the Son of God who hath his Eyes like to a flame of Fire and his Feet like fine Brass His Eyes like a flame of Fire are of a piercing nature insinuating themselves into all the Pores and parts of the Body they encounter with and his Feet like Brass to crush them with is explained Verse 23. I will k ll her Children with Death and all the Churches shall know that I am he which searches the Reins and the Heart and I will give to every one of you according to your works He knows every design of the Romish Party design'd by that Church of Thyatira * For the Evidence of it I refer you to Dr. More 's Exposition of the seven Churches worthy every Learned and Vnderstanding Mans reading and of every sober Romanist Jezabel there signifies a whorish Church such a Church as shall act as Jezabel Ahab's Wife who was not only a Worshipper of Idols but propagated Idolatry in Israel slew the Prophets persecuted Elijah murdered Naboth the Name whereof signifies Prophesie seiz'd upon his Possession And if it be said that Verse 19. this Church was commended for her Works Faith Patience 't is true Rome did at first strongly profess Christianity and maintain'd the interest of it but afterwards fell into the practice of Jezabel and committed Spiritual Adultery And is she to be owned for a Wife that now plays the Harlot because she was honest and modest at her first Marriage * Coc. in loc And though she shall be destroy'd yet not speedily Verse 22. I will cast her into a Bed seems to intimate the destruction of Jezabel not to be at once and speedily but in a lingring way and by degrees as Sicknes consumes a Body 2. This Perfection of God fits him to be a special Object of Trust If he were forgetful what comfort could we have in any Promise How could we depend upon him if he were ignorant of our State His Compassions to pity us his Readiness to relieve us his Power to protect and assist us would be insignificant without his Omniscience to inform his Goodness and direct the Arm of his Power This Perfection is as it were Gods Office of Intelligence As you go to your Memorandum Book to know what you are to do so doth God to his Omniscience This Perfection is Gods Eye to acquaint him with the necessities of his Church and directs all his other Attributes in their exercise for and about his People You may depend upon his Mercy that hath promised and upon his Truth to perform upon his Sufficiency to supply you and his Goodness to relieve you and his Righteousness to reward you because he hath an infinite Understanding to know you and your wants you and your services And without this knowledge of his no comfort could be drawn from any other Perfection none of them could be a sure Nail to hang our hopes and confidence upon This is that the Church alway Celebrated Psal 105.7 He hath remembred his Covenant for ever and the Word which he hath commanded to a thousand generations And Verse 42. He remembred his holy Promise and he remembred for them his Covenant * Psal 106.45 He remembers and understands his Covenant therefore his Promise to perform it and therefore our Wants to supply them 3. And the rather because God knows the Persons of all his own He hath in his infinite Understanding the exact number of all the individual Persons that belong to him 2 Tim. 2.19 The Lord knows them that are his He knows all things because he hath Created them and he knows his People because he hath not only made them but also chose them He could no more choose he knew not what than he could Create he knew not what He knows them under a double Title of Creation as Creatures in the common Mass of Creation as new Creatures by a particular act of Separation He cannot be ignorant of them in time whom he fore-knew from Eternity His knowledge in time is the same he had from Eternity He fore-knew them that he intended to give the Grace of Faith unto and he knows them after they believe because he knows his own act in bestowing Grace upon them and his own Mark and Seal wherewith he hath stampt them No doubt but he that calls the Stars of Heaven by their names * Psal 147.4 knows the number of those living Stars that sparkle in the Firmament of his Church He cannot be ignorant of their Persons when he numbers the Hairs of their Heads and hath Registred their Names in the Book of Life As he only had an infinite Mercy to make the choice so he only hath an infinite Understanding to comprehend their Persons We only know the Elect of God by a Moral assurance in the Judgment of Charity when the Conversation of Men is according to the Doctrine of God We have not an infallible knowledge of them we may be often mistaken Judas a Devil may be judged by Man for a Saint till he be stript of his disguise God only hath an infallible knowledge of them he knows his own Records and the Counterparts in the hearts of his People None can counterfeit
God is able to make him to stand Rom. 14.4 5. From this Attribute of the Infinite Power of God we have a ground of comfort in the lowest estate of the Church Let the state of the Church be never so deplorable the condition never so desperate that Power that created the World and shall raise the Bodies of men can create a happy state for the Church and raise her from an overwhelming Grave Though the Enemies trample upon her they cannot upon the Arm that holds her which by the least motion of it can lift her up above the heads of her Adversaries and make them feel the thunder of that Power that none can understand By the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed Job 4.9 they shall be scattered as Chaff before the wind If once he draw his hand out of his bosom all must fly before him or sink under him * Psal 74.11 And when there is none to help his own Arm sustains him and brings salvation †Isa 63.5 and his fury doth uphold him What if the Church totter under the underminings of Hell What if it hath a sad heart and wet eyes In what a little moment can he make the night turn into day and make the Jews that were preparing for death in Shushan triumph over the necks of their Enemies and march in one hour with Swords in their hands that expected the last hour ropes about their necks Esth 9.1.5 If Israel be pursued by Pharoah the Sea shall open its arms to protect them If they be thirsty a Rock shall spout out Water to refresh them If they be hungry Heaven shall be their Granary for Manna If Jerusalem be besieg'd and hath not Force enough to encounter Senacherib an Angel shall turn the Camp into an Aceldema a Field of Blood His People shall not want deliverances till God want a power of working Miracles for their security He is more jealous of his Power than the Church can be of her Safety And if we should want other Arguments to press him we may implore him by virtue of his Power For when there is nothing in the Church as a Motive to him to save it there is enough in his own Name and the illustration of his Power Psal 106.8 Who can grapple with the Omnipotency of that God who is jealous of and zealous for the honour of it And therefore God for the most part takes such opportunities to deliver wherein his Almightiness may be most conspicuous and his Counsels most admirable He awakened not himself to deliver Israel till they were upon the brink of the Red Sea nor to rescue the three Children till they were in the fiery Furnace nor Daniel till he was in the Lions Den. 'T is in the weakness of his Creature that his strength is perfected not in a way of addition of perfectness to it but in a way of manifestation of the perfection of it As it is the perfection of the Sun to shine and enlighten the World not that the Sun receives an increase of light by the darting of his Beams but discovers his Glory to the admiration of Men and pleasure of the World If it were not for such occasions the World would not regard the Mightiness of God nor know what Power were in him It traverses the Stage in its fulness and liveliness upon such occasions when the Enemies are strong and their strength edg'd with an intense hatred and but little time between the contrivance and execution 'T is a great comfort that the lowest Distresses of the Church are a fit Scene for the discovery of this Attribute and that the Glory of God's Omnipotence and the Churches Security are so straitly link't together 'T is a promise that will never be forgotten by God and ought never to be forgotten by us that in this Mountain the hand of the Lord shall rest ‖ Isa 25.10 that is the Power of the Lord shall abide and Moab shall be trodden under him even as Straw is trodden down for the Dunghill And the Plagues of Babylon shall come in one day death and mourning and famine for strong is the Lord who judges her Rev. 18.8 Use III The Third Vse is for Exhortation 1. Meditate on this Power of God and press it often upon your Minds We conclude many things of God that we do not practically suck the comfort of for want of deep thoughts of it and frequent inspection into it We believe God to be true yet distrust him we acknowledge him powerful yet fear the motion of every straw Many Truths though assented to in our Understandings are kept under hatches by corrupt Affections and have not their due influence because they are not brought forth into the open air of our Souls by meditation If we will but search our hearts we shall find it is the Power of God we often doubt of When the heart of Ahaz and his Subjects trembled at the Combination of the Syrian and Israelitish Kings against him for want of a confidence in the Power of God God sends his Prophet with Commission to work a miraculous sign at his own choice to rear up his fainting heart and when he refus'd to ask a sign out of diffidence of that Almighty Power the Prophet complains of it as an affront to his Master * Isa 7.12 13. Moses so great a Friend of God was overtaken with this kind of unbelief after all the Experiments of God's miraculous Acts in Egypt the Answer God gives him manifests this to be at the Core Is the Lord's hand waxed short Numb 11.23 For want of actuated thoughts of this we are many times turned from our known duty by the blast of a Creature as though man had more power to dismay us than God hath to support us in his commanded way The belief of God's Power is one of the first steps to all Religion without settled thoughts of it we cannot pray lively and believingly for the obtaining the Mercies we want or the averting the Evils we fear we should not love him unless we are persuaded he hath a Power to bless us nor fear him unless we were perswaded of his Power to punish us The frequent thoughts of this would render our Faith more stable and our Hopes more stedfast it would make us more feeble to sin and more careful to obey When the Virgin stagger'd at the Message of the Angel that she should bear a Son he in his Answer turns her to the Creative power of God Luke 1.35 The Power of the highest shall over-shadow thee Which seems to be in allusion to the Spirits moving upon the face of the Deep and bringing a comely World out of a confus'd Mass Is it harder for God to make a Virgin conceive a Son by the power of his Spirit than to make a World Why doth he reveal himself so often under the title of Almighty and press it upon us but
bodies in the last sickness you had And what then had become oâ— you What could have been expected to succeed your impenitent state in this World but howlings in another But he repriev'd you upon your petitions or the sollicitations of your friends and have you not broke your word with him Have your hearts been stedfast hath he not yet waited expecting when you would put your vows and resolutions into Execution What need had he to cry out to any so loud and so long Oh you fools how long will you love foolishness Prov. 1.22 when he might have ceased his crying to you and have by your death prevented your many neglects of him Did he do all this that any of us might add new sins to our old or rather that we should bless him for his forbearance comply with the end of it in reforming our lives and having recourse to his mercy 3. Exhortation therefore presume not upon his patience The exercise of it is not Eternal you are at present under his Patience yet while you are unconverted you are also under his anger Psal 7.11 God is angry with the wicked every day You know not how soon his Anger may turn his Patience aside and step before it It may be his Sword is drawn out of his Scabbard his Arrowes may be settled in his Bow and perhaps there is but a little time before you may feel the edge of the one or the point of the other and then there will be no more time for Patience in God to us or petition from us to him If we repent here he will pardon us If we deferre Repentance and dye without it he will have no longer mercy to pardon nor Patience to bear What is there in our power but the present the future time we cannot command the past time we cannot recal squander not then the present away The time will come when time shall be no more and then long-suffering shall be no more Will you neglect the time wherein patience acts and vainly hope for a time beyond the resolves of patience Will you spend that in vain which Goodness hath allotted you for other purposes What an estimate will you make of a little forbearance to respite death when you are gasping under the stroke of its Arrows How much would you value some few days of those many years you now trifle away Can any think God will be alwayes at an expence with them in vain that he will have such riches trampled under their feet and so many editions of his patience be made wast Paper Do you know how few sands are yet to run in your glass Are you sure that he that waits to day will wait as well to morrow How can you tell but that God that is slow to anger to day may be swift to it the next Jerusalem had but a day of peace and the most carelâ—â—â— sinner hath no more When their day was don they were destroyed by 〈◊〉 Pestilence or Sword or led into a doleful Captivity Did God make our lives so uncertain and the duration of his forbearance unknown to us that we should live in a lazy neglect of his Glory and our own happiness If you should have more patience in regard of your lives do you know whither you shall have the effectual offers of Grace As your lives depend upon his will so your conversion depends solely upon his Grace There have been many examples of those miserable wretches that have been left to a reprobate sence after they have a long time abus'd Divine forbearance Thoug◠〈…〉 he binds up sin Hos 13.12 The sin of Ephraim is bâ—â—â—d up as bonds are bound up by a Creditor till a fit opportunity when God comes to put the bond in suit it will be too late to wish for that patience we have so scornfully despised Consider therefore the end of Patience The Patience of God considered in it self without that which it tends to affords very little Comfort 't is but a step to pardoning Mercy and it may be without it and often is Many have been repreived that were never forgiven Hell is full of those that had Patience as well as we but not one that accepted pardoning grace went within the gates of it Patience leaves men when their sins have ripen'd them for Hell but pardoning Grace never leaves men till it hath conducted them to Heaven His Patience speaks him placable but doth not assure us that he is actually appeas'd Men may hope that long-suffering tends to a pardon but cannot be assured of a pardon but by something else above meer long-suffering Rest not then upon bare Patience but consider the end of it 't is not that any should sin more freely but repent more meltingly 't is not to spirit rebellion but give a merciful stop to it Why should any be so ambitious of their ruine as to constrain God to ruine them against the inclinations of his sweet disposition 4. The fourth Exhortation is let us imitate Gods patience in our own to others He is unlike God that is hurryed with an unruly impetus to punish others for wronging him The consideration of Divine Patience should make us square our selves according to that pattern God hath exercised a long-suffering from the fall of Adam to this minute on innumerable subjects and shall we be transported with desire of revenge upon a single injury If God were not slow to wrath a sinful World had been long ago torn up from the foundation And if Revenge should be exercised by all men against their Enemies what man should have been alive since there is not a man without an Enemy If every man were like Saul breathing out threatnings the World would not only be an Aceldama but a Desert How distant are they from the nature of God who are in a flame upon every slight provocation from a sence of some feeble and imaginary honour that must bloody their Sword for a trifle and write their revenge in wounds and death When God hath his Glory every day bespattered yet he keeps his Sword in his sheath what a wo would it be to the World if he drew it upon every affront This is to be like Brutes Dogs or Tygers that snarle bite and devour upon every slight occasion But to be Patient is to be divine and to shew our selves acquainted with the disposition of God Be you therefore perfect as your heavenly father is perfect Matth. 5.48 i. e. Be you perfect and good for he had been exhorting them to bless them that curs'd them and to do good to them that hated them and that from the example God had set them in causing his Sun to rise upon the evil as well as the good Be you therefore perfect To Conclude as Patience is Gods perfection so it is the accomplishment of the Soul And as his slowness to anger argues the greatness of his power over himself so an unwillingness to revenge is a sign of
rushings into his presence in Worship Had they been only sins of Omission and sins of Ignorance it had been enough to have put a stand to any further operations of this perfection towards us But add to those sins of Commission sins against knowledge sins against spiritual motions sins against repeated resolutions and pressing admonitions the neglects of all the opportunities of Repentance put them all together and we can as little recount them as the sands on the sea shore But what do I only speak of particular men view the whole World and if our own iniquities render it an amazing Patience what a mighty supply will be made to it in all the numerous and weighty provocations under which he hath continued the World for so many revolutions of Years and Ages Have not all those pressed into his presence with a loud cry and demanded a sentence from Justice yet hath not the Judge been overcome by the importunity of our sins * Pont. part 1. 42. Were the Devils punished for one sin a proud thought and that not committed against the blood of Christ as we have done numberless times yet hath not God made us partakers in their punishment though we have exceeded them in the quality of their sin Oh admirable patience that would bear with me under so many while he would not bear with the sinning Angels for one 2. Consider how mean things we are who have provoked him What is man but a vile thing that a God abounding with all riches should take care of so abject a thing much more to bear so many affronts from such a drop of matter such a nothing creature That he that hath anger at his command as well as pity should endure such a detestable deformed creature by sin to fly in his face What is man that thou art mindful of him Psal 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miserable incurable man derived from a word that signifies to be incurably sick Man is Adam Earth from his Earthly Original and Enosh incurable from his corruption Is it not worthy to be admired that a God of infinite Glory should wait on such Adams worms of earth and be as it were a servant and attendant to such Enoshes sickly and peevish creatures 3. Consider who it is that is thus patient He it is that with one breath could turn Heaven and Earth and all the inhabitants of both into nothing That could by one Thunderbolt have razed up the Foundations of a cursed World He that wants not instruments without to ruine us that can arm our own Consciences against us and can drown us in our own Phlegm And by taking out one pin from our bodies cause the whole frame to fall asunder Besides 't is a God that while he suffers the sinner hates the sin more than all the Holy men upon Earth or Angels in Heaven can do So that his patience for a minute transcends the patience of all creatures from the Creation to the Dissolution of the World because it is the patience of a God infinitely more sensible of the cursed quality of sin and infinitely more detesting it 4. Consider how long he hath forborn his anger A reprieve for a Week or a Month is accounted a great favour in Civil States The Civil Law enacts * Cod. Lib. 9. Titul 47 6. 20. that if the Emperour commanded a man to be condemned the Execution was to be deferred 30 dayes because in that time the Princes anger might be appeased But how great a favour is it to be reprieved 30 years for many offences every one of which deserves death more at the hands of God than any offence can at the hands of man Paul was according to the common account but about 30 years Old at his Conversion and how much doth he elevate Divine long suffering Certainly there are many who have more reason as having larger quantities of patience cut out to them who have lived to see their own gray hairs in a rebellious posture against God before Grace brought them to a surrender We were all condemn'd in the Womb our Lives were forfeited the first moment of our breath but patience hath stopt the Arrest The merciful Creditor deserves to have acknowledgment from us who hath laid by his Bond so many years without putting it in suit against us Many of your companions in sin have perhaps been surprized long ago and haled to an Eternal Prison Nothing is remaining of them but their dust and the time is not yet come for your Funeral Let it be considered that that God that would not wait upon the fallen Angels one instant after their sin nor give them a moments space of Repentance hath prolonged the Life of many a sinner in the World to innumerable moments to 420000 minutes in the space of a Year to 8 Millions and 400000 Minutes in the space of 20 Years The damned in Hell would think it a great kindness to have but a Year's Month's nay Daye 's respite as a space to Repent in 5. Consider also how many have been taken away under shorter measures of patience Some have been struck into a Hell of misery while thou remainest upon an Earth of forbearance In a Plague the destroying Angel hath hew'd down others and past by us The Arrows have flew about our heads past over us and stuck in the heart of a neighbour How many Rich men How many of our Friends and Familiars have been seiz'd by death since the beginning of the year when they least thought of it and imagin'd it far from them Have you not known some of your acquaintance snatcht away in the height of a crime Was not the same wrath due to you as well as to them And had it not been as dreadful for you to be so surprized by him as it was for them Why should he take a less sturdy sinner out of thy company and let thee remain still upon the Earth If God had dealt so with you how had you been cut off not only from the enjoyment of this Life but the hopes of a better And if God hath made such a Providence beneficial for reclaiming you how much reason have you to acknowledge him He that hath had least patience hath cause to admire but those that have more ought to exceed others in blessing him for it If God had put an end to your natural Life before you had made provision for Eternal how deplorable would your condition have been Consider also who ever have been sinners formerly of a deeper note Might not God have struck a man in the embraces of his Harlots and choaked him in the moment of his excessive and intemperate healths or on the sudden have spurted Fire and Brimstone into a blasphemers mouth What if God had snatcht you away when you had been sleeping in some great iniquity or sent you while burning in lust to the fire it merited Might he not have crackt the string that linkt your souls to your